Obviously, you do not have to be a genius to see that there were some pieces missing at the front of our van. I thought it looked as if Jaws himself had taken a bite out of the front-left corner. Therefore, it was pretty easy to decide that we were going to replace the entire front panel instead of spending hours on trying to restore the front with bits and pieces.

On a nice sunny day, we took our patient outside to perform some major grinding. To keep at least some of the original metal in place, we used multi-layer disks to keep control over the grinding and reduce the “OOPS” effect. We were shocked when we removed the front: there was not a single place without rust. Unbelievable how thoroughly this natural phenomenon had performed it’s job.

We used drills to remove the remainders of the inner and outer lower front panels, which are spot-welded to the chassis. They are attached using plenty of spot welds to keep you occupied for some hours. Tip: make sure you have plenty of beer ;-)

Last but not least, save the bits and pieces you grinded of the front for reference. They will save you a significant amount of time when you start putting your life size puzzle back together.